The As-Yet-To-Be-Named Birdie!

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you....um....well. I haven't named her yet (suggestions welcome). But the little birdie is done! There are a few things that I'm not thrilled with (mostly having to do with my skill level). But all in all, I like her a lot. She's cute and sweet and somewhat funky. Quite a good mix. Here's some pics so's you can get acquainted with little....Esmerelda? Belinda? Antoinette? Francine? Eupheginia (Effie for short - thank you, Robin Williams and the writers of Mrs. Doubtfire)? Hmmmm....


I think she's gonna be christened as Euphegenia.


Yup. Effie it is. Euphegenia only when she's being particularly testy.


A little close-up on the stitches.

So yay! First embroidery project done and done! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her just yet. I might frame her. Or use her in a future scrapbook page. We'll see. I've had a request to make Effie's cousins (three owls from the "eccentric" side of the family - and ya'll know that in the South "eccentric" = "crazy", right?) on a pillowcase. I've also got something special to make for my bridesmaids...as well as the scrapbook page that's being designed in my head that needs to get itself translated into a real life page. Oh the endless possiblities of crafting!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

:)
Ru

Embroiderational Images :)

Yeah. I know. I'm silly. But!!! I'm getting the hang of embroidery!!! I'm pretty excited about this. I bought a thimble and a water-soluble fabric pen this afternoon and I've spent the past few hours playing around and practicing the basic backstitch. I free-handed a bird image and started stitching. As I went along, I started to get the feel for it and my stitches became a bit more even. My stepmom gave me some good advice when she said to make my stitches as small as humanly possible - it makes your lines and curves a lot smoother. It's not done, but I've decided to go ahead and share some pics :)



The purple craziness at the top of the hoop is from last weekend when I was just practicing some of the stitches out of the stitch dictionary.



Part of the purple craziness :) I'm actually kind of proud of this part - it's the fern stitch and I just really like how it comes out.

So there it is. The first attempt. I'm going to finish up the bird as practice and then possibly free-hand another bird on a fresh piece of fabric to embroider for reals. Embroidery is pretty painstaking, but not in a bad way (if that makes sense...). It's fussy, yes. But you get into sort of a rhythm and all of a sudden you look up and it's been an hour and a half and you have this beautiful image starting to emerge from these tiny little stitches. It's totally gratifying.

Busyness and Business

Both of those words just look funny to me when you spell them out....Sorry for beginning on a random tangent. But at least both of those words are related to what the post is about today. Do I at least get half-credit for that? Please?

So. Busyness. Lots of goings on in the life of Ru. And all of it pretty darn marvelous stuff. Wedding planning, girls' day out, St Patty's Day celebrations, eye exams, flower-planting, family get-togethers, Zumba classes....whew! So it's been All Quiet on the Crafting Front (Erich Maria Remarque is probably rolling over in his grave at this precise moment). But I did get in all of the embroidery supplies I ordered. Yay! Friday night I threw some white cotton I hacked off of a larger piece into the embroidery hoop, threaded up a needle, broke out ye olde stitch dictionary and started to embroider! I was really only practicing a few stitches, so there wasn't any kind of pattern. And those stitches were quite uneven and lopsided at first (and second and third and so on...lol), but it was definitely fun. Although I definitely need a thimble. And more practice. So I'm hoping to get both of those things some time this week. I'll post up a couple of pics of my first stab at embroidery too. It should be quite amusing for you all.

As for business....the first free seminar at the community college about starting up a new business is next Monday. I am both excited and nervous about it. So I'm exervous. Or nercited. Whichever. But I'm sure that I'll get some good information, and that's what this research phase is all about. I have a lot of questions - Is there a real market for crafts in my community? Would the economy support making such an endeavor? How do I pay for it? Where would be the best place for the kind of store I want? How do I write a business plan? Who should I go through to rent the kind of space I want? Where do I go to purchase inventory? See? Lots of them. And I'm pretty sure that each answer I get will lead to more questions. So on top of practicing embroidery this week, I'll also be writing up a (long) list of questions.

So it seems like the busy/busi-ness shall continue on through this week. Which is cool with me :) I'm thankful that I lead such a full life and that it's filled with wonderful people to share it with!

Hope you're having wonderful weeks, mes amis! (We booked our honeymoon in New Orleans this past week, so I'm brushing up on some French....)

Ru

Working like a fool.....

and I don't like it! Okay, tantrum over. Work has been a little, well, time-consuming over the past few days. Spent 11 hours slaving away yesterday. But the good news is that I'll get paid overtime for those 11 hours. Which is nice. On to bigger, better, waaaaay more fun things.....

On Saturday, we went down to Dad's house for his birthday cookout. Had a good time hanging out with my family and while we were there I scored a couple of iron-on embroidery patterns from my stepmom. She taught me the basics of embroidery a few years ago and I recently purchased a stitch dictionary. So I'm excited to try my hand at it! I'm just waiting on some supplies to come in and I'm ready to go :)

Oh, and here's a pic of the project that started it all. The one, the only, 30th birthday scrapbook page!



Isn't the birthday girl cute?!?! I had a lot of fun creating this. For the top of the page (where the "water" meets the "sand"), I spent about half an hour trying to come up with a way to make it look like actual water meeting actual sand. Everything I tried was just not working. I finally figured out that I needed some white to create that seafoam look. And then it all clicked - I just needed to tear the paper so that the white part showed!! Lemme tell you, when that lightbulb went off, you'd have thought that I had brought peace to the Middle East AND ended world hunger in one fell swoop....it's the little things, people. The little things.

So. Hopefully I'll have some embroidery supplies soonish and can start showing you my more-than-likely sad and painfully inadequate attempts at hand embroidery. I know you're looking forward to it!

Oh! I almost forgot....



This is the 3rd of our 3 puppers. Harleybear is the eldest of the 3, but she enjoys flopping with the rest of them. As well as collar-shaking, barking at people walking by the house ("HEY! Person walking by! PERSON!!! WALKING BY!!! DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, HE'S GOT A STROLLER!!!!!!!"), and snoring. I especially like the snoring bit....

Hope everyone's having a lovely Monday!

:)
Ru

Crafty Goodness

So quite a while has passed since I last posted a blog....which is kinda lame. I've been thinking about how I can get more consistent with blogging and I think I've had an epiphany (I'm on a roll with epiphanies this week, but more on those a little later in the post...). I'm going to turn this into my craft blog. I have goals about wanting to craft more - anything from crocheting to scrapbooking to learning to embroider to beading to cake decorating. And I also have a goal to start blogging once a week. So I'm gonna have two birds in one hand and one stone in the other. Or something like that.....

So. Epiphanies. Had a doozie of one at the end of last week.

A wee bit of a backstory - I've been stuck in a job that I don't enjoy very much for the past 6 years and I've really been struggling to find my way to being happy in my work. I've gone on interviews, looked at schools and different degree programs (clinical research? why not!?! underwater welding? sure!!!), even thought of making baked goods out of my house and selling at the local farmer's market (I love to bake and thought it would be a good career. Unfortunately, having 3 rambunctious pups = not being able to get a license from the health board to operate a food business out of my house.).

So back to the epiphany. I had finished a framed scrapbook page for my best friend for her birthday and was thinking about trying to find a local craft store to go to crops or classes or whatever. So I googled. There was one (count them - ONE) scrapbook store in my town that wasn't a big chain. So I called to find out hours and such. The nice lady who answered the phone said that they actually were now a graphic design shop that did some digital scrapbooking. So I asked if there was another store in the area and the response? Nope, nada, zilch, zero. So that started my little brain a'churnin'....

Why not open a craft store myself? (Note: I am still mentally hyperventilating at the thought of doing so. Just an FYI.) A place that's warm, inviting, beautiful, and friendly that stocks really great products for all kinds of crafters (or those of us who like to dabble in a bit of everything). Somewhere that always has the coffeepot full of fresh coffee, comfy chairs to sit in, and someone to share ideas (and cool tools!) with. Kind of like "Cheers", but instead of alcoholics, it's craft addicts. AKA - my idea of heaven.

And I realize that it's going to be a reeeally long road with lots of bumps and potholes, possibly a few ravines and crevasses, certainly some switchbacks and washouts, and probably at least a few hundred speed humps and iffy bridges. Enough with that metaphor.... This is going to be hard. Super-hard. BUT! I have that feeling in my gut of this being the direction I should go in. And I have an awesome man, a supportive family, and some fabulous friends to help me get there.

It's also gonna take some time and I'm gonna have to be patient. This year is so full already with planning my wedding and I don't want to take away from that awesomeness. But I figure this year will be my "research phase". Talk to some shop owners, to scrapbookers I know, other crafty people to see what their opinions are about what a great store should have. Go to the free seminars that the community college offers on starting businesses and figure out the legal end of things with registration and taxes and accounting and business loans and all that scary stuff. Figure out who to buy products from and how to do that. There's lots of stuff to learn and I have the rest of this year to do so. I'm hoping that by January of next year I'll be ready to start the process of getting a business loan, finding a space, buying inventory and setting up shop for reals.

So that's the dream. The first step is done - I've found it. And that's so exciting! And daunting! And crazy! And scary! And fabulous! Whew.

Okay. Back to the blog topic of.....blogging. That sentence made no sense. Whatevs. I think I'm going to try to post once a week - probably Saturday mornings. Have some pics of what I'm working on. Maybe a tutorial on how I did something. I'll also keep a record of how the research on the craft store business is going and any further epiphanies I may or may not have. There will also probably be a few updates on these guys...



2 of the 3 pups flopping about our house at any given time. They're big into flopping. They're also big into wallowing, snoring, and collar-shaking. They're the best.

Later, taters!
Ru

29 and holding....

Well I turned 29 this past weekend. Had wonderful times with great friends, family and the boyfriend. Friday night had dinner at a Cuban restaurant in downtown Durham with Kev and my favorite Brit Barry. Lots of laughter, good food (Steak Chimichurri!!) and comments about "Commies" from my (crazy) boyfriend. Then came the awesome fireworks at the ball park. Saturday was spent sleeping in, being lazy, going to the Flea Market (Christmas shop!!) and then heading out to dinner with more friends at Carino's. Headed back to Kev's house to hang out and watch a movie. Sunday was spent going out to Falls Lake to see my dad and stepmom who had brought their camper up for the day. It rained like crazy. But we (meaning Dad, Ma, Suber, Mary, Jason, Kev and I - that's a lot of peeps crammed into one wee camper!) had a great time talking and eating chicken 'n pastry and cutting up.

All in all, a great birthday weekend!!!

Blogerific

Hmm....blogging. Something that everyone's doing, but I've never tried. Let's see where this goes.